A practice was scheduled yesterday in Brossard but as the time drew near, the journalists on site were wondering if it was going to happen as nothing had been put out for it... 20 minutes before the start time, the official Habs PR account tweeted this:
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) November 29, 2019
According to Claude Julien, it's time to change things up...the recent mistakes are not caused by a lack of practice but rather by bad decision making. Pinching when it's not time to and being caught in the offensive zone while the other team has an odd man rush, choosing to cover the right man in the defensive zone or quite simply making bad passes. For the Habs' bench boss, there was no sense in working on the ice yesterday and a training off of it might just have been what the doctor ordered. There will be no morning skate either this morning as the game against Philadelphia starts early so most Habs won't have touched the ice since the loss to New Jersey, only Kinkaid, Hudon, Reilly and Fleury skated. The coach also added that it was important to keep his team fresh for the upcoming back to back.
Entraînement en gymnase à Brossard, aujourd’hui. Voici les joueurs sur la glace:
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 29, 2019
Off-ice workout in Brossard today. Here are the Habs on the ice:
Hudon
Reilly
Fleury
Kinkaid#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/VUciCebLeG
Julien also confirmed that he plans to use Keith Kinkaid this weekend, without of course confirming when. We'll know this today at 12:45 when he addresses the media. That is by no means a shocking news, after all, using his number one goalie doesn't really give him a better chance to win right now and there's no sense in running him into the ground when his confidence is so shaken. Which of the two games will Kinkaid be featured in? Your guess is as good as mine, the Habs faithful are not exactly in a great mood right now and should things go badly in another start for Price, they could turn on him and give him the Bronx cheer as they have been doing lately. Could a visit to Boston where the Bruins have yet to lose in regulation be the best option? Price has won 7 of his last 10 duals in Boston including the last 2 allowing 2 goals in the last game and none in the one before.
The Canadiens made a roster move yesterday as well, no do not get excited. They only recalled Gustaf Olofsson fom Laval. Given the fact that Folin is currently with the farm team for a conditioning tilt, it made sense to call-up a defenseman since the Habs have had 8 on hand all season long. The 24 year old blueliner had got 7 assists in 20 games this season and has been playing well for the Rocket. It will be interesting to see if Julien decides to throw him into the mix after Brett Kulak had a rough time of it against New Jersey posting a -3 rating with only 11 minutes and 38 seconds of ice-time or if he'll elect to put Fleury back in.
The media also spoke to Jonathan Drouin who confirmed that he tore a tendon in his wrist when he fell in the third period of the game against Washington. He also said that it was hard to watch his team's current struggles and not be able to contribute but he tries to be positive and attend team practices to support the guys.
Today's opponent comes to town riding a 3 game winning streak having destroyed Detroit 6-1 last night, hopefully they got the scoring out of their system and might be running on fumes by the time the third period comes around.
Edit: kinkaid in net, Fleury and Olofsson in the line-up (with Reilly and Kulak making way)